


A second chance

by No_Man97



Category: The Thundermans
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 04:13:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17155106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/No_Man97/pseuds/No_Man97
Summary: After failing to save his sister from becoming evil, Max gets a second chance of life to make things right. Now he will do everything in his power to keep Phoebe and his family safe while dealing with feelings he avoided for a long time





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! I know that I'm late in joining this fandom and that it doesn't have as many people as it had, but I hope to help revive the fandom and make some of the members return.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own the Thundermans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I know that I'm late in joining this fandom and that it doesn't have as many people as it had, but I hope to help revive the fandom and make some of the members return.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own the Thundermans

Max raced towards the control room where he knew the device will be, where she will be. His family and the Z force were dealing with Destrocto and other thugs, creating an opening that allowed him to put a stop to this, hopefully once and for all. He entered the control room, where a single figure stood there looking at the timer. Sensing his approach, she turned and her red eyes burned with feral joy and her face twisted with that god-awful smirk.

"Hello, Maxie," she greeted.

Max simply stared with a harden expression at the visage that was once his kind-hearted sister. It has been four years since Phoebe turned evil and began her plight on the world. They managed to stop her every time, but it was getting more difficult with each attempt.

"Love the new suit. Brings out all your assets," she said in a seductive tone. "Can't wait to peel it off of you like the last time."

Max blinked, trying to get rid of the memories of him being captured by her. Now was not the time to open that can of worms.

"Phoebe, we don't have to this," he pleaded, even though he knew how useless it was.

His twin sighed in annoyance. "Max, must we go through this song and dance every time? There is no way I'm going back to being a hero, especially now since the Z force labeled me as a threat to the world. And you won't join me out of some misguided idea of redemption. So, we might as well just skip all this and get straight to the fighting. I promise I'll try to make it painless."

Without a word, both twins readied themselves. Phoebe threw energy balls at Max, who dodged each ball flawlessly. Max used his telekinesis to sweep his opponent's feet, before lunging at her. Phoebe barely got time to get up before Max started his attack on her. She was barely keeping up with him and one of his punches slipped through her defenses landing on her gut, creating an opening for Max, where he began to throw punch after punch. The evil twin managed to put some distance between them, quickly realizing that the suit Max was wearing wasn't just for show, but it enhanced his strength, agility, endurance and his powers. Max charged at her again, but Phoebe quickly let out an energy blast, throwing Max away and short-circuiting his suit. Unknown to both of them, the blast also affected the control console.

"Is that it?" she asked as she approached him, throwing another ball of energy at the fallen hero. "I guess you made this suit a few hours ago, yes? Usually, your inventions are much more durable and overall better when you put more work into them."

She turned him with his face towards her and straddled him. "Not that it matters now. You won't get another chance at making another invention, I promise," she said, her face so close to his that he can feel her breath on his face, before brandishing a knife. "Now, let's get you out of the suit."

Max quickly head-butted her before throwing her off him. He got up, but only to be blasted off his feet again. As he got up again, his Thundersense warned him of the approaching danger. Acting purely on instinct he grabbed the arm that held the knife and twisted it so that the knife hit the gut of his attacker.

Silence reigned over the control room as both twins looked at each other, both of them trying to digest what just happen. The first one to destroy the silence was Phoebe, by coughing up blood on Max's face, which seemed to have made Max snap out of his trance as Phoebe fell.

"Phoebe!" he yelled as he kneeled beside her.

"Max…" she said weakly, her eyes no longer red.

"Don't talk, Phoebe. Save your strength," he said as his mind worked desperately to find a way to save her.

"Max…" she called his name again, this time her voice quieter than before, as she reached with her hand for Max. The young hero grabbed her hand and squeezed. He opened his mouth to comfort her, to tell her that everything will be alright, but she beat him to it. "I'm sorry…for everything. If I had more faith in you…none of this would have happened," she said tears falling for her eyes

Max shook his head, the tears in his eyes fogging his vision. "It's not your fault Phoebe, it's mine."

"Max, I…I love you," she whispered before her eyes glazed over and her hand went limp in his.

Max stared at the still body of his late sister.

No, this isn't happening! This can't be happening! It wasn't supposed to end like this! We were supposed to become heroes!

"PHOEBE! PHOEBE!" he yelled, tears falling freely as he shook her in a desperate attempt to wake her.

When she didn't stir, Max was forced to face the horrible truth.

Phoebe died.

And it was his fault.

He hugged her body as he cried. "I'm sorry," he repeated between sobs as his life, his entire being crumbled into nothing. Sudden explosion forced him to look up and acknowledge the Doomsday device that Phoebe had built. It was going into overdrive and the control console was damaged.

The last thing he saw was a blinding white light before he fell into darkness.

The numbness in his limbs was the first thing he felt, the next was the headache. He slowly opened his eyes, trying to adjust to the brightness.

"Morning sunshine," a sassy voice he knew very well said.

"Colosso," he rasped out, his throat dry from the lack of water.

"Are you okay, Max? You aren't coming down with something, right?" the rabbit asked in an unusual concern.

Max said nothing as he spotted a bottle of water and gulped down. Feeling a lot better he turned to his best friend. "Colosso, what happened with Phoebe? And the Doomsday device?"

"What are you talking about?" the former villain asked confused.

"Max, breakfast is ready," his mother called before he could say anything.

What's going on?

He went upstairs and saw that except Chloe and Phoebe everyone was present.

"Good morning!" a voice that made his heart skipped a beat said.

Max turned and stared at Phoebe who walked down the stairs, completely fine and alive. His head began spinning as he struggled to understand what was going on.

"What's wrong Max? Did your brain short-circuited again?" she teased.

Max blinked a couple of times before turning to his mother. "Can I borrow your phone for a sec?"

"Uh, sure," she said and handed him the device.

Max's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the year: 2013.

"Sweetie, are you okay?" his mother asked concerned.

Max looked at her, confusion etched on his face. "Uh, yeah. Uhm, I'll just go get dressed," he said and made a dash towards his lair. Once inside, he took a few calming breaths.

Ok, there are three possibilities:

One: I've been captured by Destructo and he is now torturing me, by making me relieve all my memories. But why would he make me relieve all my memories? Why not the latest ones?

Two: Either the blast from Phoebe's machine or God sent me back in time to right all my wrongdoings

And three: I'm in Hell and forced to relieve my life, all my mistakes without being able to do anything as punishment.

Well, there is one way to find out which one is it. I know that today Cole and his family will have dinner with us. If I do nothing, then the dinner will go smoothly.

"Max!"

"Huh? What?"

"Are you alright? You've been spacing out since we left home," Phoebe said concerned.

Max surpassed a smile, as his twin care for him produced a warm sensation in his chest. Instead, he smirked. "Yeah. I was just thinking about my latest scheme."

Phoebe narrowed her eyes. "I hope you won't ruin the dinner tonight."

He scoffed. "Like I care about a stupid dinner. I have better things to do."

School passed as a blur and dinner came. Max was on edge for the beginning of the dinner, keeping quiet and only talk when asked, his answers were short. Phoebe nudged him, but he ignored her. Soon, his anxiety disappeared and replaced with pure joy when he realized none of his pranks came to fruition. This only meant one thing.

He was back in time.

He could prevent Phoebe from becoming evil. He could save her.

Max relaxed and began conversing with Cole's family, making jokes and generally being his charming self. The dinner ended with everybody happy and Max went to his lair. He looked around, thinking about where to start.

"Max," Phoebe called as she came down the stairs.

"Yes?"

"I wanted to thank you for not ruining the night," she said, smiling brightly.

A weird feeling settled in his chest, but he ignored it. He now needed to act cool and pretend he was still wishing to be a villain. He didn't want anyone to be suspicious of him yet, not until he had a clear plan. "As I told you before, I had better things to do than crash a stupid dinner," he said in a cold voice

Her smiled faltered. "Well, I still wanted to thank you. So…thank you," she said, and in a brave moment, she kissed him on the check, surprising both of them.

An awkward silence ensued, neither twin looking at each other. Max scratch the back on his head awkwardly, ignoring the feeling again. "Well, you're welcome."

Phoebe looked at him, her smile bright. "Good night, Max!" she said before she left.

"Night," he said

"What was that about?" asked Colosso

"Nothing important," Max said and went to his benchwork.

"What are you doing?"

"Cleaning up."

About two hours later Max finished sorting all his gadgets, organizing them in three piles: useful, scrap and throw away/sell. Finally, he turned to his Dark Mayhem and scowled. With his telekinesis, he ripped it from the wall and burned it to nothing with his head breath.

"What are you doing?!" the rabbit yelled.

"I'm changing my career path," Max responded ominously

"What?"

Max took a breath. While he was sorting through all his gadgets he came up with a plan. It's not a much of plan, but he'll improve it as he goes on. However, the hard part was to convince his best friend to help him.

"Colosso, promise me what I'm about to tell you won't tell anyone," he said seriously.

The former villain was taken aback by his friend's seriousness. Never before had Max been this serious and ominous.

"What's going on Max? Are you in trouble?" Colosso asked in concern, feeling very afraid for his friend.

"I'm not in trouble, but I'll be. Please, promise me you won't tell anyone what I'll tell you."

"Alright, I promise."

Max took a deep breath. "I'm from the future."


	2. Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank the people who read my story. It means a lot to me.

To say that convincing Colosso was hard would be an understatement. Max had to predict the remaining of the week and recite all of Colosso secrets to make him take him seriously.

"So let's say, hypothetically that you are from the future," Colosso began, gaining Max's attention. "Why did you came back?"

"I didn't come back willingly, truth be told I thought I died."

"What do you mean?"

Max took a deep breath. He told Colosso everything. How he turned against Dark Mayhem, how he became a hero in the end, how he and Phoebe became candidates for the Z force, how Phoebe turned evil, how he killed her.

"Max, I'm so sorry," Colosso said sincerely. He knew that despite their fights Max truly cared about Phoebe.

"So you believe me?"

"I do. What you told me seems too specific to be a lie. Not to mention, that I couldn't find a reason why you would lie to me."

"Then I need your help Colosso, I can't do this without you. If you won't do it to save an innocent girl's life, at least do it for me, your best friend, please?" Max begged desperately which left Colosso speechless. Max begged before, but all the times he has heard Max beg for something it was half-assed. Now he could hear his desperation clear, sounding like a man without any other options. Both of them knew that Colosso was his only hope to save his sister. And despite the animosity, he felt towards Phoebe, Colosso could not in good conscience let her die.

"Of course Max! You're my best friend and even though I don't like Phoebe I don't want her dead."

Max smiled in relief. "Thank you Colosso."

"Do you have a plan yet?"

"I do, but it's incomplete. First I need to disable the stick bomb I left in the Hero conference room. While it may have lesser security than other buildings owned by the Hero League, it would be tough to sneak in and out undetected. That's why I need to craft a stealth generator, then something that creates a high amount of energy to destroy the stink bomb. Then I'll hunt Dark Mayhem down. And I must do all this without my family finding out."

"That's all? I thought it would be more difficult than this," said the rabbit sarcastically

Max smirked. "I already started working on the stealth generator and the weapon, they should be finished by tomorrow. I can use my jetpack to get to Metrobourg and back. Then we'll focus on Mayhem."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Max, but you can't beat Mayhem on your own."

"I know. Before I came back I made a suit that enhanced my strength, agility, endurance and my powers, but since it was a prototype it was destroyed easily. I'll need to make it even better if I am to beat Mayhem. But I'll need some special components from the black market, which I don't have the money to buy."

"The answer to that is easy Max: either steal the components or steal money to buy them."

"I don't want to rub banks," Max said sharply. "I want to make people believe I want to be a supervillain, not become one."

"Alright, so stealing it is. In that case, I hope that stealth generator of yours will work perfectly."

"It will."

The bunny scoffed. "I've yet to see an invention of yours that will work."

The young man glared. "My inventions do work," he said before going up.

Today was Ditch Day, probably his favorite day because he got to spend time with Phoebe something he never truly appreciated back then. Before they started their snowball Max made sure to deactivate the security cameras in the school.

"That was fun," Phoebe said as both of them rested on the staircase.

"Yeah," he agreed. His gaze dropped on his lap as his heart started to rise. "Listen, Phoebe, there is something I have to tell you," he said seriously, making Phoebe looked at him in curiosity. Max rarely got serious. "I just want you to know that no matter what I say or do I care about you, a lot," he confessed and Phoebe's eyes widen. While she knew that deep down Max cared about her she never expected to say it out loud, especially to her. She was so shocked that she couldn't say anything, so she let him continue. "And I'll always care about you, even if you hate me," he finished his confession, feeling his palms sweaty and his heart hammered in his chest. He took a deep breath to calm himself, confessing his feelings was a difficult thing for him to do since he only did it only once with Allison.

Phoebe smiled and hugged him. She felt him go stiff for a moment before he turned and hugged her fully. "I could never hate you, Max. I love you."

Max's mind flashed to that fateful day. His throat became tight and his eyes began to sting as he held her close. "I love you too," he said softly.

She pulled back and grabbed his hand. "Come, let's go home."

And they went home, their hands intertwined.

When everyone in the Thunderman household was asleep, Max sneaked into the kitchen and opened the secret compartment that housed the Animalizyer. He quickly started to work on it, modifying it so that only Colosso will be affected by it. He didn't feel right for doing this to his best friend, but he couldn't take any chances. Colosso sold him out in the past and while he wasn't a saint either, he couldn't risk it now when the stakes are so high. He snapped a picture of the blueprint to make his own Animalizer in the future. Once done, he quickly put the weapon back and went to his room.

The following night, Max sneaked out. He activated the jet back and flew to Metrobourg as fast as he could. He made a mental node to tinker with the jetpack later. Once he arrived he pulled the schematics of the building on his phone. There was a vent on the roof that he could use as an entrance and exit. He pulled the grate and entered the ventilation ducts, following the map. Unfortunately, the vents didn't have direct access to the conference room, so he had to drop in a restroom. He activated the stealth generator and made his way towards the stink bomb. He didn't encounter any guards, nor was he expecting any. The only need he had for the stealth generator was to avoid being seen by the cameras. He entered the conference room and quickly found the bomb.

He glared at the object that was responsible for destroying his life. No, the object while being the cause of his misfortune was just that, an inanimate object. One person was responsible for Phoebe's death in the alternative time: himself. He could blame Mayhem, for leading him down the dark path, he could blame the villain for encouraging him to be evil, when it came down to it he chooses to become a villain, he chooses the dark path, because of his childish envy of Phoebe. He was envious of her because she had everyone's love and admiration. Because of this envy, he pushed everyone away, thinking that they didn't care about him, but he was wrong; his friends and family cared about him, Phoebe cared about him. He did make amends for his mistakes, but it wasn't enough. Phoebe turning evil, her dying by his hand, they were punishments for his crimes.

He hated himself. He was the one responsible, it was all his fault. The hated he felt was nothing he had ever experienced before, so much so that he was releasing telekinesis energy without realizing. This energy interfered with the stealth generator, causing it to malfunction. Max let out a curse and turned his attention to the task at hand.

He obliterated the bomb and made his way towards his exit. He activates his stealth generator, but instead of making him invisible he only made him transparent. He closed it with a scoff.

Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way.

It took nearly an hour, but he managed to exit the building without being spotted. He made it back home around one in the morning sneaked into his lair.

"Did you succeed?" asked the rabbit.

"Yeah," he responded while undressing. "Did you find some of the components by now?"

"I found all of them. Apparently, a villain by the name of Cinders wants to purchase a lot of power conductors, insulators, power cells, circuits, plastics and control modules. The deal is about to take place here in Hiddenville since it hasn't any assigned superhero. The plan is to sneak into the van that has the goodies and get away."

"I'll need something that disables tracking chips in case they attach one on the van. Luckily, I've got just the thing. When is the deal going to take place?"

"In two days, in an abandoned deposit at the edge of the town at midnight."

"How did you find all this info?"

"I still have contacts in the villain league who owe me favors."

"You used a secure channel to contact them, right?"

The former villain scoffed. "What are you taking me for? A rookie?"

"Right, sorry."

"Let's just go to sleep already, I'm tired."

Max wordlessly complied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. If you have any constructive criticism, just leave a comment.


	3. Chapter 3

"Something happened with the stealth generator last night," Max said.

"What happened to it?" asked Colosso.

"During the mission, I accidentally released some telekinesis waves and messed it up."

"What do you mean by 'accidentally released some telekinesis waves'?"

"I got angry and lost control of my telekinesis and damaged the stealth generator. Now it only turns me transparent. But that's not all. Just watch."

Max put the stealth generator and turned it on, making him transparent. Before Colosso could say anything his hand went through his workbench.

"You can phase through objects," said the shocked rabbit

Max smirked. "I know. If I could turn invisible it could have been the most impressive stealth tech ever created. Still, I'm quite pleased with what I have. I'm going to test it when I am going to steal from Cinders. Speaking of which, tell me about Cinders."

"There is not much to say. He's a new villain who robbed a few banks. As the name implies he has pyrokinesis abilities. No arch nemesis yet. I would be careful, though. Even if he didn't kill anyone yet, we have no way of knowing what his limits are."

Max needed the money for the new phone, but instead of filling it with useless photos, music, and games, it will be of more use to his mission to stop Mayhem. Combined with the newest smartwatch he will be able to communicate with people without being traced. While he would have liked to spent time with Phoebe he needed the money fast, so he along with Billy and Nora gambled on their mother at the cup stacking competition. By the end of the day he was able to buy the phone, sadly he still needed more money for the watch. As he was getting used to his new phone, an exhausted Phoebe entered.

"Where did you get that?!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, I bet on mom at cup stacking. She very good at it," he said matter-of-factly

"But, why didn't you let me in on it?"

"I would have, but between me, Billy and Nora we barely got the money. How is work?"

The-hero-in-training let out a tired sigh. "Though. Wong is a slave driver and the pay is not so great."

Max smiled sympathetically. "That's rough."

"Tell me about it. I have to work for Wong for another two weeks before I can make enough money. Is there any other cup stack competition any time soon?" she asked hopefully

Max shook his head. "Not until next year."

His sister let out a forlorn sigh and Max rubbed her back encouragingly.

"I'm going to take a shower," she said as she stood up.

Max's eyes never left her back until she disappeared up the stairs.

The time has come. Max sneaked out of the house after he made sure that his hoodie masked his eyes and his black scarf covered his mouth and nose, using his jetpack he quickly arrived at the deposit. He got on a catwalk, observing the meeting from the shadows. He saw Cinders, alone, talking with the black market merchant. The villain wore a simple red jumpsuit with a red mask and black visor, further cementing the idea that Cinders was new to the supervillain gig. From the shape and height of Cinders' body, Max deduced that Cinders was male.

"Show me the merchandise," commanded the villain, his real voice distorted by a voice modifier.

"Of course sir," the merchant said.

Cinders and the merchant looked at the back of the van while the thugs that accompanied the evil merchant stood guard.

"Looks good."

"I can assure you my friend my merchandise is the best."

Max used his telekinesis to throw an empty barrel into other barrels, causing everyone to jump.

"What was that?" growled the villain.

"Probably a stray animal. Nothing you need to worry about my friend. And to prove it my men will check it out," the evil merchant said and with a gesture most of his henchmen went to check the commotion, leaving only two of them to guard their boss.

Max quietly got down from the catwalk. Once down he activated his now phasing device and entered the van. Once inside he pulled a small orb that emitted small electric energy, not big enough to damage the engine, but good enough to destroy any tracking chips. Thankfully, the keys were in the ignition. Max quickly turned on the van and hit the acceleration, bashing through the rusted gates with the villains shooting behind him. Because of the head start, he had on them, Max managed to lose his pursuers. He parked the van down the street his house and quietly sneaked in, grabbed the Animalizer and went to his room.

"Is that...?"Colosso asked as his wide got huge when he saw his old invention.

Max wordlessly blasted the former villain, turning him human. "Come help me with the crates."

They started to move the crates to his lair as quickly and quietly as they could. After they managed to move the crates, the duo dumped the car near a park and they managed to finish at four in the morning. Colosso eyed the Animalizer before looking at Max.

"If we're done, I would like to go sleep," he said.

The young vigilante stared at his friend for a moment before nodding. Taking the Animalizer he turned Colosso into his rabbit form. He put a blanket over the crates and went to bed.

"Max! Wake up!" an annoying voice yelled.

The young man opened one eye and saw the angry face of his mother. He grumbled a 'go away' before closing his eye.

"Max! You're late for school!" Barb huffed annoyed as she pulled the cover off him.

"Who cares?" he rasped

"I care!" yelled an annoyed Barb, making Max wince. "Now get dressed quickly, wash your teeth and go to school. I've already made a sandwich for the road."

Max did as he was told and in ten minutes he was out of the door, walking to school with his twin.

"Did you spend all night gaming?" she asked when she saw him yawn for the nth time.

"You know it," he lied with a casual smile.

Phoebe just sighed and rolled her eyes.

"What?" he asked.

"I just don't like it how you're wasting your potential,"

"I'm not wasting my potential, Pheebs."

"How is staying up late playing video games and pretending to be a supervillain is not wasted potential?" she asked sarcastically

"Hey! I'm not pretending! I am a supervillain!" he protested, but it lacked the usual bark.

Thankfully Phoebe didn't notice or if she did she assume he was tired. "I don't think you want to be a supervillain, Max, especially after your little monolog on Ditch Day. A supervillain is someone who only cares about himself and you clearly care about me."

Max said nothing for a moment. "Maybe I'll be a different kind of supervillain," he offered. He inwardly cursed himself for that moment of weakness, but he couldn't help it. He felt she deserves to know that he loves her since in the previous timeline he never told her how much she means to him.

"Max," she said and grabbed his hand, his heart skipped a beat. "I'm sorry."

His eyes almost popped up in disbelieve. "For what?" he asked softly.

"I know why you want to be a supervillain. It's because our parents put me on a pedestal, isn't it? I know it's not fair since you are smarter than me. And I never encouraged you, in fact, I made fun of you when you failed. And I'm sorry."

The young vigilante was floored by her confession. "What brought this on?" he asked as he stared into her beautiful brown eyes.

She lowered her gaze. "I've been thinking ever since we had that heart to heart and I realized that I never told you that I love and I haven't been the best sister either."

His throat constricted and his heart rate sped up. "Pheebs, that's fine. I was much worse than you. And how are parents pay you more attention? It doesn't bother me anymore. I know they love me and that's all that matters."

She looked up at him in disbelieve. "But-" she tried to protest, but he cut her off.

"Look, how about this: from now on we stop putting each other down and help one another. Does that sound good?"

Phoebe smiled. "I would love that."

"And about me being a supervillain, you are right. I don't want to be a super villain anymore, but I don't want to be a hero either," he said and when he saw the look of confusion on his twin's face he continued. "I don't know what I want to do just yet. I'm still looking for my path."

She nodded. "I understand."

"I would like to keep what we talked a secret from the rest of our family."

"What?" she asked in surprise. "But mom and dad would be so happy that you stopped being a villain and-"

"I know they mean well, but they would influence my decision. It's my life and if I am to become a hero I want it to be my decision."

"Alright."

"I want you to Thunder swear."

Phoebe stared at him with wide eyes. She had never seen her twin so serious. He stared at her intensely, waiting for her answer. No one looked at her like that before, his focus was solely on her. "Alright," she said a blush formed on her face. She held out her pinky and Max grabbed her with his "I Thunder swear not to tell anyone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. If you have any constructive criticism or feedback, leave a comment


	4. Chapter 4

Max was glad that it was Friday, meaning he only had to worry about school today. Staying awake at school after last night was a difficult task, but he managed to pull it off with Phoebe’s help. When he arrived home the first thing he did was to sleep until dinner. After dinner, he spent some watching TV before going to bed. He needed to save his strength, he had a feeling that he would stay awake after midnight for a long time from now on.

* * *

 

_Max opened his eyes and found himself in the living room of his house. The living room was dark, he could barely see the furniture and it would appear that the house was devoid of life._   
_“Hello Max,” a cold voice said. Max went stiff as he recognized that voice. He turned and gasped in horror. It wasn’t the evil smirk, the blood-red eyes or the malice in them that turned his stomach turn. It was the stab wound in her stomach, the blood stain on her black suit that made him recoil. “What’s the matter, Max? You don't look so hot. Funny, I always thought you would be more happy to see me dead._ _”_

_“No! I would never be happy to see you dead Phoebe!”_

  
_Phoebe laughed maniacally. “Don’t lie, Max! You always hated me because everyone loved me more than you! The day I turned evil must have been the happiest day of your life!”_

  
_“No! That’s not true!” he denied with desperation. "I was jealous of you, but I would never hurt you. Remember the night of the prom? I couldn’t take your powers away, I couldn’t lose you. You mean a lot to me Phoebe, more than you know.”_

  
_“If you care then why did you kill me?” she asked with a sneer._

  
_“It was an accident, I swear,” he said, desperately trying to convince her, tears forming in his eyes._

  
_His twin smirked evilly. “So, you feel guilty, do you? For all those times you’ve hurt me, you’ve abandoned me. That’s the reason for your little confession a few days ago. Is that what I’m supposed to believe?”_

  
_“It’s the truth, I swear,” he said, his voice tight because of the node that was forming in his throat. “I’ll make this right, I swear. I’ll stop Mayhem, you won’t become evil and we will be heroes.”_

  
_The evil version of his twin just stared at him, looking into his very soul. “And what if that doesn’t happen?” she asked making Max dumbstruck. “What if something else happens and only one of us can become a hero and the other one will either fall to darkness or losses his powers and be forgotten?” Phoebe ignored him and looked out the window seeing the sun rising. “The sun is almost up, it’s time to wake up,” she said as she walked towards the window._

  
_“No, wait!”_

  
_Evil Phoebe turned to Max. “Goodbye, Max”_

  
_“NO, DON’T GO” he yelled as he desperately reaches for her._

* * *

 

“NO, DON’T GO!” Max yelled as stand up from his bed.

  
“Max! What’s wrong?” asked a concern Colosso.

  
The young man let out a tired sigh. “Nothing, just a bad dream. Go back to sleep.”

  
While Colosso was able to go back to sleep, Max wasn’t so lucky. The clock read 6:30 AM, two hours early from his usual time when he woke up. With a frustrated groan, he got up and sketched the blueprints for his new suits. At 7:30 he finished and decided to prep his workbench for work and went upstairs and wait for his family. This weekend his parents are going to go to Metrobourg to read his mother’s late uncle’s will, leaving Max in peace to work. He estimated that building the suits and to upgrade his jetpack will take 15 days.  
“Suits?” Colosso asked once he told him after breakfast.

  
"Yeah. One for combat and the other for stealth," he explained as he worked.

  
“So are you going to wait for Mayhem do make his move?”

  
“No, I’m going to strike first. The last time we fought him we won by the skin of our teeth. I’m going to hunt the bastard down.”

  
“So how are going to find him?”

  
“I’m going to shake down the villain league until I find him.”

  
“Oh, Max,” the former villain said as if he was taking if a child. “Despite the fact that they formed a league, they aren’t as tight as you think. There is a high chance that none of them will know where Mayhem is.”

  
“There must be someone who knows his whereabouts. I know for a fact that the Son of Scalestro works for Mayhem, so when I’ll find him I’ll probably find Mayhem or he’ll point in the right direction. All I have to do is find Scalestro and everything will work from there.”

  
“That’s... actually quite a good plan,” the rabbit said impressed

  
Max’s signature smug smirk was plastered on his face. “Did you forget who you’re talking to?”

* * *

 

“Hey, what are doing?” Max asked from the door of his twin’s bedroom.

  
“Practising my candidate speech for the tomorrow's presidential election.”

  
“Oh, is it tomorrow?” he asked even though he knew.

  
“Yeah. Hey what do you think of my T-shirt?” she asked and showed him the purple ‘Don’t be dweebs. Vote for Pheebs!’ T-shirt. Noticing his barely contained laughter she huffed in annoyance. “You try to find something that rimes with Phoebe!” she said and shoved.

  
“How about ‘Vote for Phoebe. This shirt is freebie’?” he asked, smirking smugly.

  
“Dang it!”

  
Max shook his head. “I wasn’t laughing because I thought it was stupid. I was laughing because I thought it was cute.”

  
Phoebe’s cheeks started to grow warm all of a sudden. “Y-you know, since you’re here you could help me. You could listen to my speech and I have made a list of questions you can ask me to make me look good.”

* * *

  
_An hour later_

  
“Well, what do you think?” an excited Phoebe asked

  
Max had to be careful not to hurt her feelings. Thankfully he had an hour to think about his words. “It’s too long Phoebe. Remember that you are talking in front of teenagers, not scientists. Also, you didn’t talk about some important problems the school has like: the hair in the cafeteria food from the cafeteria lady’s beard, sandpaper instead of toilet paper and how the janitor waxes the floor before the students leave, causing accidents.” Phoebe was speechless. She didn’t think Max would be of any help, much less point out flaws in her speech and come with solutions.  
“Also, what your speech lack is passion. You need to captivate your listeners and bring them to your side. Let your passion flow, but not so much that it will blind your audience, make some deliberate movements like a strong hand signal at the right time for impact, have a powerful voice, but not overpowering and have clarity.”

  
“How do you know all this? Do you make speeches when no one is looking?” she asked jokingly, but she was very impressed.

  
He chuckled. “No, but I know how to charm people,” he said with his signature smirk on, leaning ever so slightly towards her face.

  
A clear blush formed on Phoebe’s face. She backed away and opened her window, thinking that the room just got hotter.

  
Max saw her blush. He wondered what was that about, but he quickly dismissed it, remembering how his twin gets easily flustered. “What is your plan once you become president?”

  
“I plan to increase the school spirit by having the mascot give hugs, give rolling backpacks in order to carry the heavy books and put a healthy snacks dispenser.”

  
“Replace the hugs with high fives, put the books online for download and instead of snacks put smoothies.”

  
She nodded, deciding to trust his judgment.

  
“How is work?” he asked changing the subject.

  
“I stopped working for Wong a few days ago. She fired me because I messed up an order, but I think she did on purpose to have a reason to fire me. Mom said she’ll give the difference of since it’s not a lot of money. On Tuesday I’ll have a new phone.”

  
“That’s good,” he said with a smile. He managed to sell the extra components and got a decent sum. He wanted to give them to Phoebe, but since she doesn’t need them he could use it to buy the smartwatch. Now if he could get that awesome computer he had in the alternate timeline he would have tech that would make Tech Rider look obsolete.

* * *

 

Phoebe became president which was no surprise for anyone. After he made Billy and dad move the rocks from his by threatening dad's hidden snack stash he continued working.

  
“Max,” Phoebe call as she came down.

  
“Hello there madam president,” he said with a smirk.

  
“Listen, I wanted to thank you. If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t have been president. So, thank you,” she said bashfully which he found absolutely adorable.

  
“Don’t mention. And I mean it. I have to keep my bad boy image,” he said half-jokingly. She smiled, though it was forced and her gaze dropped on her boots. Max frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  
“I just...I wouldn’t have been president if it weren’t for you and I feel like you deserve it more than I do.”

  
“Pheebs, it’s fine. I know how much you wanted to be, so I helped you. And before you say, no I wouldn’t make a good president because I don’t care about that stuff.”

  
“At least let me make you my VP.”

  
“I’ll help you when you need it, but I don’t want any official position.”

  
He could tell that she was disappointed, but she would take what she could get. “So, what are you doing?”

  
“Oh, nothing much. Just tinkering,” he said casually, as he moved subtly towards his workbench, blocking her view.

  
“What are you tinkering with? Nothing dangerous I hope," she said in that authoritative voice that always amused him, thinking she could order him around.

  
Max chuckled. “I assure you, I’m not doing anything dangerous. I’m just a little bored and decided to play a little with my inventions.”

  
A mischevious smile appeared on her face. “Awh, are you playing with your toys?” she asked teasingly.

  
“Very funny, Pheebs,” he said and gave her a small playful shove. “Still wearing that retainer when you go to sleep?”

  
Phoebe gasped in disbelieve. “How do you know that?”

  
Max smirked. “I must say, it works great, showing your geekiness. Relax, I’m not going to tell anyone and I don’t even have a picture. Now, if you don’t mind I have work to do."

  
She relaxed and smiled. “Alright,” she said and went up the stairs. “I’ll let you play with your toys.”

  
Max pursed his lips in annoyance before continuing his work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. If you have any constructive criticism or feedback, leave a comment


	5. Chapter 5

Max bought the smartwatch he wanted. After he connected to his phone he made some adjustments that once the watch is connected to his phone all calls will be directed to his watch and not his phone, making the call untraceable. Now all that remains is to make a small version of the Animalizer, thankfully that won’t take more than a day. The only bad thing is that he can't build it this week because it will be one of the busiest days this year. At least he managed to finish upgrading his jetpack. Now his jetpack has a shield, but he can boost them at the cost of his speed. The jetpack also can release decoys to confuse heat-seeking missiles. The average speed he reaches with it is Mach 1, but he can reach 1.5 at the cost of his shields. While it isn’t the fastest jetpack out there, it’s more than enough for now.

“Where are you going?” his best friend asked him as he was getting dressed.

“To catch a vandal. I won’t be long,” he responded.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea since Phoebe is watching you?”

“I already proved to her that I’m not the vandal since yesterday all mailboxes were filled with hay,” he said and left through the window of his lair

He quickly made his way to the park where he knew Darcy was going to vandalize a statue. He arrived just on time as he saw her take out her can of spray. He silently went behind her and grabbed the hand that held the spray can, startling her.

“Hello, Darcy,” Max said smirking.

 At home, the entire neighborhood led by Wang demanded Hank to step down as Captain. Everyone stopped talking when Max came in dragging Darcy by the arm.

“What is the meaning of this? What is niece doing here? And what is she wearing?” demanded Wong.

“She is the vandal,” said Max, making everyone gasp. “Tell them,” he ordered the young Wong.

“It's true, I vandalized the neighborhood," she said, angry at being caught.

“But why?” asked Barb.

“Because I can,” the teenager sneered.

Wong grabbed her niece by the hand. “We’re going to talk at home,” she said and with a final glare to the Thunder family, she left. The rest of the neighbors apologized to Hank and left.

“Max, I’m so proud of you,” his mother said.

“You did a good job catching Darcy. You have the makings of a hero," his dad commented with a proud smile.

This was probably one of the happiest moments in Max’s life. His parents were proud, his family happy He chanced a glance at Phoebe and her smile made his chest feel warm. Which made what he was about to do hurt even more. “A hero?” he scoffed. “Please, I only stopped Darcy because I didn’t want any competition. I am the only bad guy in Hiddeville. This town is mine!” he said coldly.

The effect of his little speech was immediate. The proud look quickly turned into one of disappointment. And the way Phoebe looked at him made his stomach churn. A look of pure anger that screamed ‘How can you do this to mom and dad?’. This was the second worse look she had ever send him, the first being the look of utter betrayal when he used her to get his evil journal. He took no pleasure in this, but he had to keep up the appearance of being a rebellious teen going through a phase in order to avoid the Hero League. He knew that they were keeping tabs on his family and he couldn’t let them know what he wanted to do. If his mom and dad would tell Evelyn that he was good, the Hero League would be breathing down his neck and they would interfere. So, to that end, he needs to pretend he is a jerk. Without a word, he went to his room to work.

“Max! We need to talk,” Phoebe called after him.

“Not now Phoebe. I’m busy,” he said, not daring to look at her.

“Well, that’s though,” she said and used her telekinesis to make him turn to her. At that moment Max was glad his twin didn’t have laser eyes as her powers because she could easily bore a hole through him with the glare he was giving him. “What was that a minute ago Max? Why did you have to break mom and dad's, heart?"

“Because I don’t want them to know that I’m good!” he yelled in frustration

“Why?! Why is it so a big deal that they know that you’re not a jerk anymore?!” she yelled back. At that moment Max felt like nothing had changed. He felt like they hated each other again and that they were doomed to find themselves in a lair with doomsday device ready to fire and only one of them would make it out alive. That scared more than anything. Phoebe saw how the anger disappeared from her twin’s face and was replaced by fear and she swore that she saw him go pale. “Max? Are you okay?”

Max blinked. “Huh?”

“Are you okay? You spaced out for a second. And you looked like you had a ride on the Thunder coster.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just forgot something at school, it’s nothing important,” he lied. “Now if you don’t mind I have work to do.”

“You still haven’t told me why are you so obsessed to keep your bad boy image intact,” she won’t let him get away this time.

He sighed tiredly. “I just don’t want the Hero League breathing down my neck. If mom and dad tell Evelyn, the Hero League will watch my every move.”

“Having the League’s attention is not a bad thing, Max.”

He sighed again. “You don’t understand Phoebe. I don’t want anyone watching me, controlling my every move,” he said which it was the truth. He didn’t like the Hero League that much even before Phoebe went mad, with them moving Max and his family to Antartica, ordering Phoebe to stay away from Cherry, having people spy on them. His poor opinion on the League got worse when they wanted to lock Phoebe away and throw away the key instead of curing her. While Evelyn was sympathetic and he could understand her point that the needs of many outweigh the needs of the few. But as a hero, Max couldn’t accept that. A hero would try to save everyone no matter what. “Look, can we talk tomorrow? I’m tired and I have work to do.”

Phoebe sighed tiredly as well. “Alright. We’ll talk about this at another time,” she said and went up the stairs, stopping halfway. “I just want you to know that the Hero League is not how you think it is Max.”

* * *

 

“I’m done,” said Colosso as he finished attaching the final cable to the chassis.

“Just give me a sec,” said Max as his face was scrunched in concentration, adjusting the power cable, then looking at the monitor that displayed power readings. He grinned when he saw the numbers. “Now, let’s test them.”

Max and Colosso put the suits in standing position before the young Thunderman went upstairs to get the rest the rest of the weapons in the ‘secret compartment’. Once he came back they started to fire at the suits. They tested the suits for energy, fire, and ice. Once it was done Max looked at the monitor and grinned. “They work, the shields work. And they also regenerate,” he said and high fived his best friend.

“So what do they do?” the former villain asked.

"This one," he said as he pointed to the white suit that looked more like leather armor. "Enhances my strength, speed, agility, endurance, and my powers. It can release gamma light, which causes blindness for two hours. The other one,” he pointed at a grey suit. “It enhances my telekinesis four times. I can become transparent and phase through objects and projectiles.”

“When are you going to test them?”

“Tomorrow I’m going to Metrobourg and test the white one on some low lives. For now, let's sleep."

“Aren’t you going to name them?”

“I’ll think about it later.”

* * *

 

True to his word, tomorrow night Max donned the white armor, he donned a white helm to cover his face.  The armor's HUD flashed to life, showing all systems are green and his shield is fully charged. Putting his jetpack he flew to his former hometown, arriving in five minutes. It was a well-known fact that the outskirts of the city aren't safe at night as the thugs and villains are active. However, tonight everything is quiet. The young vigilante decided to patrol some more since it was only a little after eleven. Ten minutes later an explosion was heard close to the center. The explosion came from a bank. Max descended in front of it, opting to test the suit some more instead of going for a surprise attack. He quickly put the jetpack aside in order to protect it from the fight and prepared for combat. From the bank, the villain emerged with two bags full of cash in each hand.

“Cinders,” the young man said, the voice modifier making his voice gruff.

“ **Do I know you?** ” asked the villain as he dropped the bags.

Max smirked behind his helm. “You didn’t see me back then, but I was the one who stole all those all those components.”

“ **YOU?!** ” the villain roared. “ **You son of a bitch! Do you have any idea how much you cost me?!** ”

“No, and I don’t care,” he replied cheekily

“ **You bastard! I’ll turn you to ashes!”** Cinders roared before throwing fireballs at the young vigilante.

Max dodged them expertly, quickly closing the distance between him and the villain. He kicked the villain in the chest so hard that he sent him flying back in the bank. He didn’t continue his attack, deciding to play a little bit with the villain in order to test the suit some more. If something bad were to happen he could use a gamma light attack to bring his opponent down or flee.

The villain got up. “ **Burn out**!” he growled and released a burst of flames from his body, but Max dodged it with ease. Cinders gritted his teeth in frustration. “ **Dodge this!** ” he yelled as he created a giant fireball and slammed it on the ground, making fire pillars emerge from it.

Thanks to his Thundersense and his armor, the young man was able to dodge all fire pillars without even being grazed by them. Going on the offensive, Max aimed another flying kick at the villain’s chest, but Cinders ducked just in time. Not stopping, Max turned faster than the villain and punched square in the jaw, knocking him off his feet. Deciding that playtime was over, he charged at Cinders doing a four-punch combo on his face before round kicking him in the jaw, sending him flying in a wall of a nearby building. The villain tried to get up, but the beating he endured was too much for his body to handle and he lost consciousness. Max grabbed his jetpack, eager to leave. As he put it on the police cars arrived and surrounded him.

“Freeze!” one of them yelled as he and his colleagues pointed his guns at him.

Max ignored them and took off. The police started to shoot at him, but his shield protected him.

“How did it go?” asked the rabbit once his owner returned.

“It was amazing! I never felt so powerful in my life! Cinders didn’t even land a glancing blow on me. Now I know I can take on Mayhem.”

“Don’t get cocky Max. You fought a noobie, not a real villain.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I shouldn’t let it get to my head,” Max said and looked at the clock. Almost midnight. “Let’s go to sleep. We’ll decide tomorrow what our next move will be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. If you have any constructive criticism or feedback, leave a comment


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys! I just want to let you know that I won't be able to write any chapters for a while because I'm starting work. That doesn't mean I'm giving up on this story, it just means my uploads will be fewer and far between for some time.

The breakfast in the Thunderman household was a quiet thing that morning. If a person would have walked in on them they would like the perfect normal American family.

"Looks like there is a vigilante in Metrobourg," said Hank as he read the news article from his tablet. "He stopped a villain named Cinders last night from robbing a bank. The media named him White Knight," Thunderman scoffed.

"I thought you would be happy that there is a new hero out there dad," said Nora.

"I am happy sweetheart, it's just that vigilante doesn't necessary mean hero. It could be just someone with a grudge looking for revenge. Also, a vigilante is not as properly trained as a qualified hero, making him a danger to himself and others," the legendary hero explained.

Suddenly, the Thunder monitor beeped, signaling an incoming transmission from President Kickbutt.

"Good morning, Thundermans. I am calling you to talk about the vigilante that made his debut last night," she said. While Max showed the perfect example of indifference, he couldn't help the sweat that formed on his brow and under his armpits. "When White Knight was escaping Metrobourg we deduced watching the direction he went on the cameras across the city that he was going to Hiddenville. Normally we would send our tracker team after him since he represents no danger at the moment we decided to adopt a wait-and-see approach. I want you to remain vigilant and report any unusual activity."

"We will madam President," said the family head.

"Good. That is all. Super President Kickbutt out!"

Max went to his lair and explained to Colosso what happened.

"What are you going to do? Are you going to lay low for some time?" asked his best friend.

Max shook his head. "No. If White Knight were to disappear after Kickbutt informed the Thunderman family, then the Hero League would figure out that I am White Knight. I'll just have to be more careful. I'll be home a little late today."

"Where are you going?"

"To look at some cars."

* * *

After lying to Phoebe about having a date, so she shouldn't wait up, he arrived at the car shop and found his dad looking at the cars.

"Hey dad!" he said, making his old man jump out of his skin.

"Max? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Max said with a knowing smirk. "Looking for a present for mom since it's your anniversary?"

Hank paled. "How do you know?"

"Don't worry, I'll keep your secret and keep Phoebe from finding out. I've also made dinner reservations in advance at your favorite restaurant. You'll have the best table," he said and Hank visibly relaxed. "But on one condition: buy the same car, but make sure the color is garnet."

* * *

Max patiently waited for his target to appear. At exactly 6 PM she came down the stairs and moved straight for the garage.

"Hey, Pheebs," he called.

His twin turned to him. "What's up?"

"Can please help me with the photosynthesis lecture, please? There are some things I don't get."

Phoebe blinked in surprise. "You need help?"

"I asked, didn't I?" he sighed. "...Maybe it was a bad idea," he said and turned to go to his room.

"Wait!" she called after him and Max smirked. "I'll help. Just let me get ready. Go and grab your books and come to my room," she said and went up.

Max lingered for a bit to his dad coming through the back door. He winked at him before he went to grab his books.

* * *

Max was currently tinkering with his stealth suit that he decided to name Ghost. Not the most original name, but if the hat fits. He decided to apply a stasis field to his suit, making up to five targets immobile for one minute. He had been working on this for the past few hours and he was almost done. He just needed to focus now since this was the delicate part, one wrong move and it could destroy the suit and trap him in stasis.

"Max? Are you still up?" his father asked and Max cursed his timing.

"Yeah. I just needed to finish something up, then I'll go to sleep," he said and moved with his chair in order to block the view for his father.

"Listen, I wanted to thank you for your help. Your mother and I had a great time and she loved the car."

"I'm glad," the young vigilante replied without looking at his father.

"There is something you wanted to ask, though: why did you threaten to spill the beans to Phoebe if I didn't change the color of the car instead of telling me that your mother would love a different color?"

"Because you wouldn't believe me," his son replied in a matter-of-fact tone and Hank felt like he had just been slapped. The absolute certainty Max had that he wouldn't believe made him feel like he had indigestion. "Not that I don't blame you. I wouldn't trust me either."

"Max...son...I do trust you," said as he approached his son.

The young man looked at his father from the corner of the eye. While he wanted to connect with his father, now was a very bad time. "Look, can we talk about this another time? I'm busy."

Hank looked conflicted, but he knew that if he would force it he would only make Max distance himself from him. "Okay, we'll talk some other time."

"That was the first time your moron dad tried to connect with you," remarked Colosso.

"It was also the first time I did something nice for him without any ulterior moments."

"You can use that to get that laptop you wanted."

Max said nothing, opting instead to go to sleep.

* * *

"And then he said that he understood and that he wouldn't trust himself either," Hank rambled as he paced in the bedroom he shared with his wife.

"But it is true, we don't trust him," she pointed out.

"I know! And he would usually try to convince to trust him, but now he sounded...resigned."

"He had been acting weird lately," Barb pointed out. "Getting along with Phoebe, catching Darcy."

"Making dinner reservations for us."

"Wait, he made the reservations?"

"Yeah and he also suggested I buy you the garnet car,"

Barb was speechless. "Do...do you think he wants to be a hero?"

"I was hoping, but you remember what he said when he caught Darcy."

"Maybe he is in denial. Max is a stubborn and rebellious child. He just needs time to get out of his shell. All we can do is be there for him, to love and support him."

* * *

Max just finished performing an analysis on both his and jetpack.

"Max! Phoebe!" Nora yelled meaning that dinner was ready.

After downloading the reports on his phone to look at them while eating, the young vigilante went upstairs. It would have been a normal dinner had Phoebe not caught a giant meatball without even looking. As his dad was explaining what Thundersense was, Max was debating if he should lie about not having Thundersense.

_On one hand, the laptop would be an immense help during my extracurricular activities, on the other hand, I would still lie and deceive my family to get what I want, something I promised myself I would never do again. When you think about it, there isn't any real choice here._

So, he caught the sandwich Billy threw at him. Everyone gawked at him.

"Max, you have the Thundersense," his mother breathed.

"It's not that big of a deal. Now can we please eat?" he asked, even though he knew how useful this ability was. As he was eating he read the diagnostics of his gadgets.

_Green across the board, I'm all set to go out tonight. I'll have to make an Animalizer for Colosso so he could be my eye in the sky. Also, get some money for a new laptop, but I can't afford to have a job right now and another opportunity to make some quick cash will be after Christmas if I recall. I could try to rob the bad guys I'm beating down from now._

His attention went back to his family and he couldn't help but roll his eyes at what he was hearing. In true dweeb fashion, Phoebe will let this new power get to her head, screw up, and he will be forced to clean up after her.

_I shouldn't be so harsh with her, she is a teenager after all. I was even worse was than her...And I really should stop thinking like this, I'm not an old guy._

* * *

At night, Max was listening to it from the roof of a warehouse in Metrobourg. As he patrolled the streets, he overheard some thugs about a recruitment job going down tonight. After leaving the thugs tied up to a street light for the police, he went to the place they mentioned. Fortunately, he was wearing Ghost and he was able to stick his head from the roof and listen in. He saw the one who did the recruiting: it was a man in his mid-30s wearing an elegant black suit and fashionable black shoes, however, what made him stand out was his steel jaw. Taking a foto of him with his inbuilt camera in his mask for later study, he listened to what was saying.

"Welcome everyone. I am Steel Jaw and I represent the Mastermind," the villain said. "Mastermind's goal is simple: rule the world, however, what sets Mastermind apart from others is that he actually has the resources to do it. He owns several big companies to keep the cash flowing that no one suspects and the technology to back him up. Now, I know what you all wondering: all these things mean nothing against a superhero. Well, I am here to tell you that you are wrong. Mastermind already defeated one such hero. In two days the media will release news regarding the death of Hyper Light. Mastermind killed her on his own and the best part is that he does not have superpowers," the lackey said dramatically, making his audience gasp and murmur, even Ghost was a bit shocked. "Join Mastermind, work hard and you will share in the rewards," the villain ended his speech and the thugs cheered.

Seeing as the lackey has done talking, Ghost phase through the roof and plunged into the middle of the thugs, releasing massive telekinesis energy after his descent blowing all the thugs away, knocking them unconscious. Steel Jaw froze in horror at seeing how twenty men were beaten with just one attack out of nowhere. What made matters was the look of the attacker. He saw the grey suit beneath the black cloak he was wearing, the steel mask that covered his face with the only visor for the eyes made him more inhuman with a top hat on his head. All in all, he looked like something out of Victorian horror story, like Jack the Ripper. Before he could even contemplate fleeing, Steel Jaw was lifted in the air by an invisible force and brought in front of the vigilante.

"Who is the Mastermind and where is he?" Ghost asked.

The lacked calmed down as he realized he was dealing with a hero. "I am not in the habit of talking anymore pal. Do you think I was born with this jaw?"

"Do you know anything about Dark Mayhem? Is the Mastermind working with him?"

The villain laughed. "Mastermind working with that idiot? Mastermind hates superpowered people equally, doesn't matter if they are heroes or villains. He wishes the world free of freaks like you!"

Turning the villain upside down, Ghost slammed his head on the concrete floor, knocking him out. He took his watch, whatever money he had on him and his phone. Looking through it he found a message from an unknown number:

_You have 3 days to recruit as many people as you can, then await further instructions. Contact me only in case of emergency._

Connecting the phone to his watch, he will now be able to see any messages and intercept any calls that the phone will receive and make. Now all that was left was change the message to:  _You have 3 days to recruit as many people as you can, then await further instructions. Do not contact me under any circumstances._

With that done, he put the phone back and grabbed the watch. He hoped that the thug will be too disoriented to remember the message. He left, taking the exit towards Swellview. Since the Hero League had begun to suspect he was from Hiddenville, he decided to throw them off his tail by making it seem that he came from different cities. He arrived at home at 1 in the morning.

"Hey..." Colosso said yawning. "How did it go?"

Max told his best friend everything that transpired. "Do you know anyone named Mastermind?"

"No, but I've been out of the loop regarding villain activity for a long time."

"We'll just check the Villain League's database, but I don't think we'll find anything."

"Why?"

"His lackey said that Mastermind is not a supe and hates supes, so I don't think he'll associate with them."

"You're going after him, then?"

"Yeah. Just because my main target is Mayhem I'm not going to ignore all the other villains. Thing is that I don't remember ever hearing something about a Mastermind in the previous timeline. Either he appeared as a result of me changing the past or he existed before and was stopped before he could become known."

* * *

The next day, Max and Billy were in the back yard.

"Do you remember the plan," the vigilante asked his younger brother.

The speedster nodded. "Jump on the trampoline, land on the roof, Phoebe saves me and gets her confidence back."

"And you remember what will happen if you babble about what are we going to do?"

"You'll tie all my shoes together and my pants will never leave my ankles."

Max smirked and ruffled his hair. "Atta boy! Now go and don't worry, you'll be fine," he said and went to his hiding spot.

The plan worked perfectly and Phoebe believed in herself once again.

"Where did this trampoline came from?" Hank asked.

"It's from the neighbors," Max explained as he caught part of the roof that almost crushed Nora's head. "Billy wanted to jump on it and the Andersons were more than happy to let us borrow it."

"And you helped Billy carry it, without asking for anything?" asked Barb in what she assumed was a casual tone.

The young man shrugged. "I was bored," he said and Billy nodded happily. "I'm just going to take this back. Help me out, Billy."

As Max and Billy got the trampoline back, Barb and Hank exchanged a look.

* * *

"What are you working on?" asked Colosso

"It's a surprise."

"Ooh, a gift for me and it's not my birthday," cooed the former villain. "You really are my best friend."

"Max," Barb called and she and her husband came into his room. "Listen, your dad and I discussed and we want you to have this," she said and handed him the laptop he wanted. Max was speechless. "This is just our way of saying we appreciate you and we love you and that we're proud of you."

Max hugged both of them tight. "Thank you!"

"I can't believe what I just saw," said Colosso once Barb and Hank left.

"Looks like being good does pay off after all," the young vigilante said with a smirk. "And now for your gift," he said and the rabbit immediately perked up.

He put the watch on the rabbit on his pawn, got him out of his cage and pressed a button on it and the rabbit turned human.

"Max...This is the best gift ever!" exclaimed a very happy Colosso.

"Don't abuse it, Colosso. If you're caught you'll rot in prison. And please don't try to attack my family."

"Max, I told you I'll help you bring down Mayhem. Attacking your family will not bring Mayhem here."

"And after Mayhem is dealt with?"

The doctor shrugged. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Are you going out tonight?"

"Yeah. In the meantime hack the Villain database and find out everything you about Mastermind and Mayhem."

_The next day_

"I got nothing from the Villain League about Mastermind. About Mayhem, I found nothing new about Mayhem, but there is something weird. Nobody knows about his past, he just showed up one day."

"At least you had more success than me. That is strange though," Max agreed as he performed an analysis on his suits. "Another strange thing that I remember is that his powers were able to corrupt Phoebe. That is strange since some having my powers, for example, will not become good or evil."

"You think he got this powers from something or someone?"

"Yeah, but it must have an evil origin since it corrupts people, like magic."

"Magic?"

"Why not? It's not that big of a stretch since ghosts exist."

"Max!" yelled an angry Phoebe. "What have done?" she asked as she came down the stairs.

"You have to be a bit more specific, Pheebs," he said and hid the program that performed the analysis. His suits were hidden behind a fake wall at the back of his lair.

"You canceled my reading for kids at the library."

"You're welcome."

"Max!"

"Phoebe, you were barely awake. I did you a favor."

"But..."

"Look, Phoebe. I know you want to help people, but you've got to think about yourself too. If you burn yourself out, you won't be able to help anyone."

His twin lowered her gaze. "I supposed you're right," she mumbles. She's not used to her brother being nice and right.

"Now why don't you go and relax in the living room?"

"Would you like to join me?" she asked with a smile that made his heart rate go up.

"Just give me a minute."

* * *

"I can't believe you want to spend our birthday at home," Phoebe said incredulously.

"Come on, it's not that bad. I happen to like the way mom and dad organize our party."

"Since when?"

"I've always liked it, just didn't want to admit."

Phoebe raised an eyebrow at him.

Max sighed. "Look, I just think that we should spend our birthday with the people we love and love us. I mean friends come and go, but family is forever."

"Well, when you put it like that," she said lamely, looking at the side.

"I promise we'll enjoy ourselves."

_Later that day_

"Hey," he called from her doorframe.

"Hey. You're still up?"

"I'll go to sleep in a minute. So, how did you find your birthday?"

" _Our_  birthday," she corrects happily. "And you were right, it was great."

"Good. I have one more gift for you,"

"Oh?" she said, smiling brightly.

Max's palms suddenly got sweaty. He had no idea why would he ever do this, but he felt the need to, like a compulsion. Taking a deep breath, he kissed his twin's cheek, hearing her breath being taken away, and hugged her. "I love you, Phoebe. I will always love you. Nothing can change that."

She returned the hug. "I love you too, Max."

He couldn't explain it, but he felt very happy at that moment. He didn't need to worry about Mayhem, Mastermind or Phoebe becoming evil. Everything felt right. He didn't feel like that in a long, long time. The last time he felt like this was with...

Max pulled away, realizing the feelings he experienced just now.

"Are you okay?" she asked when she saw his weird expression.

"Yeah...I just remembered something. Goodnight," he said and left before she could say anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. If you have any constructive criticism or feedback, leave a comment.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys! I would like to thank everyone who left kudos and bookmarked my story. You guys are awesome! I know that this chapter is a little short, but this is all I can do with the short break I had. Enjoy!

_No, no, no! This is wrong! He was not in love with his sister._

" _Oh, but you are Maxie," evil Phoebe sing-songed as her arms wrapped themselves around from behind. "You disciplining yourself to liking blondes over brunettes, dating Alison who made you do exactly what I always wanted you to do: stop being a bad guy, you barely fighting me when I captured you."_

_Max removed herself from her. "That's not true! I believed that blondes were hotter than brunettes, I did what Alison told me because I loved her and I didn't fight back when you capture me because I wanted to get through you."_

" _Even though I threw myself onto you, you didn't push me away. Do you really expect me to believe that you only did it because you wanted to turn me back to being good?"_

" _Yes!"_

_Evil Phoebe rolled her eyes. "Keep denying Max. That's what you're good at. When you finally understand you know where to find me," she said and the world around them disappeared._

* * *

Max woke up with a start. He shook his head to get rid of these incestuous thoughts. There is no way he was in love with Phoebe. Those feelings were the result of loneliness since Alison dumped him years ago in the previous timeline. They'll fade and until they do he'll busy himself. As today was the Sunday, he went ahead and checked his suits. As he worked Phoebe entered his lair.

"Hey Max want to go to Splatburger with me?" she asked.

Max opened his mouth to say yes, but then he remembered his dream. "Actually, I have something to do. Maybe some other time."

"Oh, okay..." she said, her disappointment clear. "What are you working on? Another invention?"

"Yeah. Now, excuse me, but I have to get back to work."

"Alright then, see you later."

As he watched her go, Max couldn't help feeling sorry for turning her down, but it was necessary until he sorted himself out. Suddenly his watch beeped, displaying one message:

_Tonight, at 2100 at the coordinates below. Send recruits ahead._

* * *

It turns out that the location is an abandoned warehouse at the edges of Philadephia. Ghost lay in hiding, waiting for someone to arrive. Finally, he spotted Steel Jaw entering the abandoned structure. Following closely behind, Ghost saw the henchman press a hidden button on the wall that revealed an elevator. Before Steel Jaw could make the lift go down, he was paralyzed by Ghost's stasis, leaving him completely immobile, incapable of even crying out for help. He didn't even see who knocked him out. After dumping the villain inside the warehouse, Ghost made his way down. The elevator led to an underground base. Armed guards patrolled the base. The vigilante's first objective was to find the main data frame. From there he will able to download all information stored in it.

"Colosso, I'm in."

* _Static*_

"Colosso?"

* _Static*_

_Looks like I'm on my own._

Ghost dodged all guards he came across until he finally reached the mainframe. He plugged his specially made USB drive in the server and in 5 minutes all data has been copied and no one would ever know. Quietly exiting the server room, he tried to find any the Command Center where the villain might be. Checking each room by slightly sticking his head he eventually found Mastermind in a simple room with a large monitor and a table with chairs. Besides him, the only other people were a man and woman dressed elegantly.

"While the loss of Steel Jaw is regrettable, we can proceed with the plan. Mr. Elmos, did you managed to procure what I asked you?" the man at the head of the table asked. Max assumed he was Mastermind. He wore a dark shirt with dark cargo pants and black boots. He also wore a human mask. The only thing Max can tell that is real was his black hair.

The man on the left spoke. "Yes, Mastermind. All that remains is to test the weapons."

"Very good. Now Ms. Katrina, did you managed to infiltrate the Hero League?"

The woman smiled. "Yes, I have level 2 access to the entire building. Level 1 access belongs to the president only."

Mastermind nodded. "Good. In two weeks time, we'll take down the Hero's League."

Max had heard enough. With his telekinesis he busted open the double door throwing it in Mastermind's lackeys, knocking them out. Mastermind pulled a pistol and aimed at the vigilante, but he was quickly disarmed by Ghost, then he was put in stasis. Ghost ripped off the mask of the villain and was surprised to see that Mastermind was a robot.

"Well, this is the surprise," the villain's voice was heard from the machine. "I didn't think I would be found so early. I'm impressed. Who are you, if I may ask?"

"My name is Ghost."

"Would you be interested in working with me Ghost? I can make it worth your while."

"I thought that you hated supes."

Mastermind chuckled. "You've been to Steel Jaw's recruitment talks I see. I assure you that is not true, it's just something to convince lesser people to work for me. I have already infiltrated the Hero League and once the league is destroyed I'll finish off the Villain League, which it shouldn't be too difficult since most of the members are idiots. Join me and you can share in the spoils once the world belongs to me. So, what do you say?"

"Not interested."

The villain sighed. "A pity. In that case," as if on cue the room was flooded with goons. "Die!"

The goons fired on the vigilante, but all shots hit the robot instead as Ghost turned transparent. Once the guns were emptied, Ghost quickly disarmed the goons them and send them flying out of the room. Once it was done, Ghost wanted to find a way to destroy the base when a voice rang out across the base.

_Abandon base! I repeat abandon base! Destroy the server and control rooms! This is not a drill!_

Max made his way towards the exit. There was no point in staying, he already copied the contents of the server room. He arrived home at 2 am and after telling Colosso he can debrief him tomorrow before changing into his PJs and went to sleep.

_The next day_

"Do you think Mastermind will attack the Hero League?" asked Colosso.

Max smirked. "Not anymore. I've alerted the League and expose his spy. He'll probably lay low for a while to lick his wounds which gives us time to decrypt his files. I'm leaving that to you since I need to go to school."

"I'll do my best," said the rabbit.

"Good luck," replied the vigilante before he left.

Max saw that Veronica was about to pour the milkshake on Phoebe and swiftly move and grabbed the cup. "Strawberry Milkshake? Why thank you, Veronica," he said with a wink, smirking.

The blonde huffed and walked away.

Phoebe stared at her twin. "Max, you..."

"Still think that being nice to Veronica is the way to go?"

Phoebe's lips pursed. "You have a plan?"

Max smirk grew wide. "Always."

The plan was the same as before, only this time Max respected it and Veronica failed the math test. Audition day came and Max stood guard in case Veronica's friends tried anything, which they did. Fortunately, there was no pie throwing this time and Phoebe was accepted.

"Thank you, Max," his sister said as the two walked home.

"You're welcome," he replied with a smile.

"You've helped me so much lately and I haven't done anything for you."

"You don't have to. I did it because you're my sister and I lo-" his heart rate suddenly went up. "-I care about you."

"You mean love," she said with a knowing smirk.

His face suddenly became and his palms were getting sweaty, but he didn't let her know what was happening to him. "I already said it for our birthday. I'll say it again next year."

"I should have asked for a recording of that speech," she mumbled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to let know you know that unless I get another break, I won't be able to upload until Easter. Thank you for reading. If you have any feedback don't hesitate to leave a comment. Cheers!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm back. Easter break will soon start and I'll be able to post more regularly.

"Hey," called Max as he entered his lair. "How does decryption going?"

"Almost done," Colosso said. "Took a little longer than I thought. However, I found something disturbing."

"What?"

Colosso went silent for a moment. "I have discovered the names of all business Mastermind has and what they are used for. We can let the authorities know and we'll deal a severe blow to Mastermind. I also found a video of how Mastermind was able to kill Hyper Light."

"Play it," Max said. Not keen on seeing someone get murdered, but it might contain useful information.

Colosso did as he was told. It showed the young hero, a girl only one or two years older than Max, advancing on the lone figure of Mastermind in a darkened warehouse. In a flash the villain was on the ground, handcuffed. She took off the villains mask only to discover that it was actually a robot. Suddenly a bullet ripped through her from behind and Hyper Light fell down on the ground, clutching the hole in her chest in pain. From the shadows, the real Mastermind emerged as he casually walked towards the downed hero. Standing tall above her, the villain shot her in the head. The video ended with Mastermind dragging Hyper Light's body in the darkness.

"He took her body," Max mumbled.

"Yeah. My guess is to either study it or clone it."

"But, why keep the video, though?"

"Momento, maybe? To brag? Regardless we now have proof what happened to Hyper Light."

"Find out more about Hyper Light. Something doesn't quite add up here."

_The next day_

"What are you working on?" Colosso asked as he munched his carrot.

"You'll see," he said and took off his protective glasses. He walked in front of the target dummies he had set in his room. He took one of the silver balls, they were at the size of a tennis ball. He threw one at one dummy and turned to ice.

"Wow," exclaimed Colosso.

Then he threw the other one at the last dummy and it burst into flames and turned to ashes.

"I sealed my breath in these containers and turned into make-shifts grenades," Max explained.

"Impressive, but what's the point of this if you have your breath?"

"I don't what people to figure out my identity. I can't risk exposure."

"MAX! COME QUICKLY!" yelled Phoebe. The vigilante heard the panic in her voice.

"What's going on?" he asked as he entered the living room. Everyone was there looking at the Thundermonitor, who displayed the news. Cinders was terrorizing the Hiddenville Mall.

"Cherry is at the Mall. We were supposed to meet there," whispered Phoebe as she grabbed hold of his arm, seeking comfort.

"And that's not all," said President Kickbutt as her face appeared on the Thundermonitor. All cities who don't have a protector in Central America are terrorized.

"Why would they do this?" asked Hank.

"We believe that they want to flush White Knight out," the president explained and Hank narrowed his eyes, his opinion on the vigilante worsen.

Max agreed with Evelyn. If they found out where he lives they could focus all their attention on one city and keep him grounded in order to advance their operations.

"Mom, Dad can't you do something?" asked a distraught Phoebe.

"I'm sorry honey, but we can't. We came to Hiddenville to stay hidden. Intervening now would undo that," said Hank as sympathetically as he could, but no matter how hard he reasoned, how his daughter's face fell made hurt him.

"But people are in danger! Cherry is in danger!"

"Rest assured, Phoebe. The Z-force is on their way," said Evenly as reassuring as she could, but it didn't help.

Max put his hand on her shoulder to offer comfort, but he knew he was of little help. Phoebe directly went to her room. The vigilante sighed and went back to his lair.

"I've heard," said the rabbit. "What are you going to do?"

"Going to kick Cinders' ass."

"What? What about keeping your identity a secret?"

"Normally I would let Z-force deal with him, but Phoebe is going to sneak out so I have to look out for her. Besides its only Cinders, I beat him before."

Turns out Max's prediction of Phoebe sneaking out was a correct one. From his vantage point, he could see her fighting Cinders and while still a rookie she fought quite well. Of course, he couldn't let her fight dangerous supervillains while she was still a novice. Plus he didn't want her to get in trouble for sneaking out, even though it was, in his opinion, for a good reason.

Jumping from his position he dropped kicked Cinders with such power that the villain crashed into a nearby shop, knocked out completely.

Phoebe gasped. "You're the White Knight."

Beneath his helmet, Max smirked. "Hey."

Even though his Thundersense warned him, he couldn't stop the gust of air that blew him away. Thankfully the suit enhanced his physical abilities to the point that he was able to flip in the air and land on his feet.

"Would you look at that. Seems like Cinders' plan worked," a voice said as three other villains made their presence known.

One was wearing all black, with black sunglasses and a black hoddie protecting his identity. A small tornado could be seen swirling around him. Another had an ice armor protecting him, obscuring his face. And the last one was a hulking mass of rocks and vines.

"Despite the first to be knocked out, Cinders was spot on about attacking this town. You have one chance to surrender," the one with the ice powers said. White Knight said nothing. "Very well," the ice villain said before snapping his fingers.

What the vigilante hadn't realized was that gust of wind that pushed him was calculated to put him in the spot he was now: behind a fountain. From that fountain, a new villain rose and engulfed White Knight within his body made of water.

Phoebe moved in to help, but her path was blocked by the ice villain. "Stay out of this girl, or else," he said and to accentuate his point ice claws grew from his hands.

The young heroine gulped thickly. Despite how dangerous the situation she was in is, she is a superheroine and couldn't ignore someone who is in danger.

Despite being engulfed in water, White Knight was fine. His armor was waterproof and in his helmet had a built-in breather. He used his telekinesis to escape and moved away to avoid being hit by the air and earth villains. As the water villain had almost come whole again, the vigilante threw one of his eyes grenades at him and froze him. The other two villains gaped in astonishment.

Phoebe finally managed to put some distance between herself and the ice villain. The villain charged at her and when he was close enough he was hit by her heat breath. He yelled in shock and pain as the ice armor melted and fell to his knees. Wasting no time, Phoebe delivered a round kick to the villain's head, making it bounce off the floor, knocking him unconscious.

White Knight was having a bit of a difficult time dealing with the two villains as the air villain pushed him away whenever he got to close and the earth villain was too tough to beat with his bare hands. He could throw one of his grenades, but he was afraid that it might be thrown back at him by the air villain. Thankfully, his break came when Phoebe used her telekinesis to throw the air villain into the empty fountain. The vigilante quickly threw one of his ice grenades at the disoriented villain, freezing him. The last villain contemplated whether he should keep fighting or flee, which gave White Knight the perfect chance to threw one of his incendiary grenades at him. The villain screamed in pain as the fire destroyed his earth armor before Phoebe froze him.

"Impressive," White Knight commended.

"Setting the villain on fire was risky. You could have killed him," chided Phoebe.

He shrugged. "If I felt that the man was in danger of dying, I would have used my ice grenade. Anyway, you should leave before the cops and the media show up, considering that you weren't supposed to be here."

Phoebe visibly bleached. "How...?"

"The lack of cape. You're a hero in training. The blue costume and the T on it...you're ThunderMan's daughter, right?" Phoebe's mouth dropped and Max almost laughed at how comic she looked. "You should leave," he said before jumping to the next floor and exited the mall through one of the windows.

An hour later Phoebe managed to sneak inside the house without anyone noticing. After taking care of the small injuries she had received in her fight and made sure Cherry was alright she had a normal dinner with her family. Once done she went upstairs and prepared herself for sleep when a knock on her window startled her. When she saw who it was, her jaw nearly unhinged itself: the White Knight.

She quickly opened her window. "You're-" she tried to play dumb, but it didn't work.

"Drop it. I know you're the girl from the mall," he said.

"How?" she asked, as once again this man rendered her speechless.

"Your family name is Thunderman. Thunder Man, Thunderman. Come on."

"Yeah, it's pretty obvious," she mumbled in agreement. "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to let you know that the media gave me all the credit for taking down the Elemental gang."

"Gee, thanks for letting me know," she said sarcastically.

"I also wanted to thank you. Without your help, I couldn't have won without sustaining serious injuries."

She blinked, not expecting that. "Oh, well, your welcome."

He nodded before exiting through the window and disappearing into the night.

* * *

 

A beautiful young woman stood inside a cafe in New York, enjoying her favorite drink as she watched the people go about their day without a care in a world. She had short dark hair and black eyes and wore casual clothes. Her peace was interrupted when a man sat down across from her.

"Can I help you?" she asked in a cold voice as tensed. The man across her looked normal, but she could tell that was not the case. What gave the man away was his eyes, the looked like snake eyes.

"Not me personally, but you can help my boss," the man said and pushed an envelope towards her.

She opened it and saw the man that had been the talk of news and underworld for almost a month now. These pictures were taken recently as she kept an ear out for him. She had to admit that she was impressed with him taking on the Elemental Gang, albeit with a little help. Still, he might prove to be a welcoming challenge to test her skills.

"Tell your boss I'm interested," she said before giving the man across from her visiting car. "Have him call me in a day or two, but no longer than that," she said and got up and left.

A smile crept on her face as she walked down the street. She always enjoyed fighting and pushing her limits. Unfortunately, she got to a point where there weren't many who could challenge her, which bored her.

_However, I have a feeling you'll be quite the challenge, White Knight._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. If you have any feedback leave a comment


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm sorry for not uploading in a long time but personal stuff got in the way. And I'm sorry that this chapter is so short. I promise the next one will be bigger.

"Phoebe, it's just a grade," said Max as the twins entered the living room.

"It's not just a grade Max! It's my GPA! I need to have a perfect for my dream University!"

"Phoebe it's just one bad mark. Your GPA would still be perfect," said Max calmly.

"How do you know that? You don't even care about your  _own_  GPA! Maybe I can find a way to get another substitute teacher," said Phoebe hysterically.

Max shook his head. He knew that Phoebe was a perfectionist, but this is crazy. He never understood her needed to be perfect.

"Phoebe, your grades may show your intelligence, but they don't defy you. Your actions do. And at the end of the day you'll have to live with your choices," he said and left. There is no point in pursuing this conversation anymore. He truly believes that, despite her flaws, Phoebe was a good person.

Going down to his lair he prepared for patrol. Since he beat up the Elemental Gang he had to patrol Hiddenville to keep the city safe from villains and also search for Dark Mayhem. Patroling his hometown usually takes him an hour, as such he pretends to go to sleep early and sneaks out while Colosso covers for him. As he patrolled he found a short dark-haired woman in a green jumpsuit sitting on a bench in the empty park. He approached her cautiously.

"I've been watching for you, White Knight," she said as she got up from the bench. "My name is Ash and I have been hired to kill you."

"Who hired you?"

"I will not say since it goes against my code, however, should you defeat me I will reveal what I know."

"Sounds good to me," he said before dropping in a stance.

"I see that you don't have a weapon. In that case, I will not use mine," she said and stabbed her katana on the ground before going into her stance.

White Knight aimed a round kick to her head, but Ash ducked. The vigilante immediately followed it up with a kick to her gut, but she blocked it, the force behind the kick sent her back a few steps. White Knight closed the distance between them and let out a flurry of attacks, but Ash managed to block or dodge all of them. Seeing an opening the assassin punched him in the stomach, stunning him and quickly followed up with a summersault that sent him flying. White Knight got up and feeling pain in his gut and his head.

_She is strong. While she didn't damage the armor her strikes are strong enough to make me feel them._

Ash stood there, waiting for the vigilante to get up. She had yet to be impressed by the vigilante. White Knight charged and when he was so close he dropped and aimed a kick to her legs, but she jumped over him. He sent a kick in her direction, but she managed to grab his leg and swipe the other one. Just as she was about to break his leg he managed to kick one of her legs, making her let go. The vigilante got up, only to be knocked down again by a kick in the stomach.

"I thought you were stronger than this," Ash said as he pinned White Knight down with a kick on his throat.

As she was about to crush his throat, the vigilante grabbed her foot and pushed her off him with all his might.

_I can't beat her, not in a fair fight. I could incapacitate her, and then what? She won't tell me who hired her unless I beat her fair and square. And she doesn't look like the type that will spill her guts under interrogation. I'll have to retreat for now and train harder._

He got up and threw one of his flash grenades blinding the assassin and made his escape. Ash prepared for an all-out assault, but no attack came.

 _At least he has honor_ , she thought. The assassin started to meditate until the effects of the flash grenade wore off. She came to realize that White Knight is someone who learns from his mistakes and can improve a lot. If he's not dealt with quickly he would become a very big and dangerous threat to all villains out there. A smile formed on her lips. She would let him be for a while in order for him to grow and challenge him again later for a better challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. If you have any suggestions or want to give your thoughts on it leave a comment


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm back!

Max panted as he wiped the sweat from his forehead after finishing his training. For the past month, he had been training to improve his strength, agility, and endurance, taking a break from White Knight. His father training regiment was a great help, the only problem was to train without his family noticing. That wasn't particularly hard as everyone had weekend plans and were mostly outside of the house most of the day. He needed to be stronger if he wanted to face Ash again.

_I was no match for her. She was holding back and my suit was enchanting my body and I_ still  _couldn't hit her. I need to step up my game big time not only to beat Ash but also protect Phoebe_.

Max looked at the date. Halloween is a couple of weeks away. While in the previous timeline he was able to save Phoebe it was a close call. This time he would stop the ghost before it possesses Phoebe.

Suddenly the door opened and Phoebe walked in. Both of them froze.

"Hey Pheebs," greeted Max while forcing a smile. He didn't expect her home for another half hour. Maybe if he played it cool, she won't question why I was training

Phoebe said nothing as she stared at his shirtless form, her cheeks tinted pink. Max frowned.  _Is she checking me out?  
_

"Hey, Phoebe! Earth to Phoebe!" he called and snapped from her daze.

"Oh, hey. Sorry, I just remembered something," she said lamely.

"Uh-huh," her twin said, unconvinced. "Did you have fun with Cherry?" he asked as he started to put the equipment away. Maybe if he played it cool, he could avoid the suspicion.

"I was on a date," she responded as she helped him.

That made him stop. "With Cherry?" he asked dumbly.

Phoebe rolled her eyes. "No dufus, with a friend of Cherry's. But I don't think we match."

He didn't remember Phoebe going on dates with any other guy other than Link. Did that happened in the other timeline and he hadn't been paying attention? He would check on Cherry's friend, just to be safe.

"So, why are you here training? Thought you had a date?" she asked.

"She stood me up, so I decided to kill some time training," he lied.

"Oh, Max, I'm sorry," she said and what got to him was that she meant it.

"It's fine," he waved off.

After they put the equipment away, Max showered before going back to his lair. He hacked into the Hero League's satellites over Hiddenville and got an ID on Phoebe's date. After a quick search, he found out that the guy was ordinary and the fact that Phoebe didn't act strangely after being with him further proved that point. Then he went to search for someone to teach him to use a sword. He figured he would fight fire with fire, in this case, he would need something to defend himself from Ash's katana, but so far he had no luck.

"I don't understand why you keep doing this vigilante stuff. You managed to destroy the bomb that you created, thus Phoebe won't turn evil," said Colosso.

"I've changed the timeline, but there is a chance she'll be corrupted."

"But what if it is her destiny to be evil?"

Max turned and glared at his best friend and the former villain thanked his stars that Max didn't have laser vision. "Her destiny is to be a hero, a great one!"

* * *

Halloween finally arrived and the Thunderman family went hunting for the Green Ghoul. Max enabled the first part of his plan: talk to the girl who complained about her boyfriend to get access to the party. He would play the role of the listener, but he would do so carefully to not give the impression he was making a move on her.

"Why do you care about Taylor's problem?" asked Phoebe as she pulled him aside.

"I don't. I just need her to get to the party."

"Max! How could you use someone like that?" asked an indignant Phoebe.

Max shrugged. "It's nothing personal. I just want to get to that party."

"Have you considered asking me?"

"Would you help?" he asked skeptically.

"Yes."

He hadn't expected that answer. He had grown used to solving problems by himself that he didn't think others would help him. He also forgot that his sister would help him if he was nice to her.

* * *

They had arrived at the party. Phoebe showed the invitation to the bouncer.

"Who is this?" asked the large man pointing to Max.

"Uh, he is..." stammered Phoebe.

Max grabbed her hand. "I'm her boyfriend," he said with a smirk.

The bouncer looked at the duo. Phoebe looked down in which the large man considered to be an embarrassment, but she lowered her head to hide her disgust. He grunted and let them in. As soon as they entered the house Phoebe removed her hand. "Was that necessary?" she asked in disgust.

"It was the only way to get in," he said with an edge in his voice. He coughed in his hand to dispel the awkward situation. "Well, thank you for getting me in. See you later," he said and went to hide in the crowd to keep an eye on his twin.

Later he saw the Green Ghoul make his move on Phoebe and his whole body stiffen. He quietly followed them to the garden, controlling himself not to jump on the possessed boy. He watched and when he saw Phoebe removed her protective rock he jumped out. "PHOEBE, DON'T!" he yelled startling his sister.

"Max! What are you doing here?!"

"Get away from him! He is the Green Ghoul!" he said as he glared at the possesses teen.

"Max!" hissed Phoebe in a warning. He was exposing them to a civilian.

Green Ghoul chuckled. "You figure out who I am, impressive," he said and Phoebe paled. "However, you made an error in judgment by removing your only protection against me!" he said and moved to possess Max. Phoebe could only stare in horror, being completely powerless as the ghost tried to possess her brother. But the ghost couldn't enter the vigilante's body. "Ugh, how?! I saw you remove the necklace!"

Max smirked and use the device to capture the ghost. "It was a trick," he said to the imprisoned entity and revealed the magic necklace around his neck. Then he turned to Phoebe. "Are you alright?" he asked, concerned. Phoebe nodded, before Max poked her in the forehead, hard. "What the hell were you thinking?! Removing the necklace knowing that there is a dangerous ghost around!"

"But you removed yours," she said lamely as if she was a child who was scolded by an adult.

"Don't change the subject! And the fact you removed it because some pretty boy said to! Is that what it takes to throw you off guard?! A pretty boy smiling at you?!" he said before letting out a sigh. "Let's go back," he said tiredly.

* * *

Once back, Max gave the captured ghost to his dad and agreed to let his dad get the merits if they left immediately. Around midnight Max collapsed on the bed in his lair, the stress from today finally caught up with him. As he drifted off he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Max. You're still awake?" asked Phoebe.

He let out a sigh. "Yeah," he said as he got up. "What's up?"

"Listen, I want to say thank you for saving me tonight," she said, not meeting his gaze.

"Phoebe, you don't need to thank me for that. I'll always have your back. And I'm sorry for losing my cool, I shouldn't have yelled at you."

She shook her head. "No, you were right. I let my guard down because some guy flirted with me. I am better than this!" she said frustrated.

"Everyone makes mistakes, but we are lucky because we can be there for each other when we screw up."

Phoebe smiled. "You're right. Thank you, Max. You're a good brother," she said and hugged him.

Max hugged her back, a warm feeling taking root in his chest. He had been such an idiot back then pushing her away in his envy and search for power. He will not make the same mistakes again!

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. If you have any feedback leave a comment


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